Nature Does Not Have A Wrath, Human Beings Do

Our own power and accountability fails when we talk about Mother Nature’s retribution

Not nice to foul mother nature

This weekend, it was the gulf states that were hit hard by hurricane Ida. Even after the IPCC’s repeated warnings and the consensus of most science and policy-makers that our climate is heating, many people still speak of “Nature’s wrath.”

This presents some real challenges that we don’t need on top of the fires and floods.

We often read that Mother Nature is punishing us for our misbehavior. Maybe we should have thought twice about all the extinctions, murder, toxic pollution, rapacious drilling, greed, and short-sighted goals with long-term consequences?

I too, have used the metaphor, but we should not do so lightly.

Maybe we have earned mega-storms, fires, floods, disease, famine, war and all those apocalyptic horse riders because we have been naughty children.

Whereas this metaphor might be helpful, and teaches with a kind of Aesop’s fable type warning, it is entirely anthropocentric. And wrong.

I don’t think it gives nature enough credit. We now have proof unequivocally that human influence on climate is contributing to disasters.

Truth has no bias

Nature, physics, the whole multi-verse — if you will — is neutral.

We characterize one small part of her, planet Earth, as she, and as mother, but this can be misleading.

Nature works with inter-active systems of reciprocity, struggle for equilibrium (never achieving perfect balance for long) complex interactions of photosynthesis, hydrologic systems, weather, temperature, gravity, chemistry, and so much, much more. This system has been called Gaia, after the Greek goddess from whom we also derive the word geology.

In one real sense, nature loves you into being. Yes, the earth is magnificent for diversity, beauty, habitability, and even spiritual uplift. But most of Earth history has been absent of humanity. We do a disservice to her, and to ourselves, in thinking that she is punishing us. We should not think that she either “has it in for us,” or that she “wants to save her precious children.” Neither is true.

There is still room to wax poetic, and even be extremely grateful, for nature’s awesome gifts, but even as we are, we must also admit we are one creation that has very little objectivity due to our own survival instincts.

As proof of what we can do, look at Afghanistan last week. For further proof, look at the wildfires, floods, famines and more that are driven not by nature’s wrath, but by our pouring of toxins into the atmosphere.

We have the power to change and adopt better policy. We must.

It is we who should protect one another, first through wanting to protect each other, and by doing so through climate justice: clean air, water, soil, and protecting the biosphere that allows quality and abundance rather than scarcity and suffering.

Neutrality is the basis for truth. That is, why belief in any creation that is biased toward one “child”, say humans, over another “child,” — such as endangered pangolins — is suspect.

We grow by learning about our own tendency for psychological projection.

Is it not hubris to see ourselves as gods?

But if we can alter Earth, are we not assuming god-like powers?

Taking responsibility is not hubris. It is the opposite. In humility, we should learn what we do that is harmful, and what we can do that is helpful for human beings, and all life, on earth.

God, then, as some of us call the Creator/creation, still remains something “greater than the self.” Nor do we have to suppose, that Gaia, as a collection of myriad cells and systems has no consciousness.

We have not even come close to understanding what consciousness is, much less having the knowledge to comprehend such a thing as a self-regulating entity having no, or any, consciousness. We just don’t know.

“God” is not found in scripture alone, perhaps, but in nature, wonder, science, discovery, experience, and innovation. Do not look to nature for favor. Do not look to nature for wrath, or punishment. Rather, look to nature to see that all actions have natural consequences and we should honor what she best teaches: non waste, (all nutrients, no garbage) reciprocity, diversity, and abundance.

We occupy one thin narrow band of the Earth we call the biosphere. And, yet, we, not Earth’s systems, are responsible for much of our present crisis.

Perhaps it was once useful to see ourselves as God’s children, but now it is counterproductive. We must find enough maturity to realize we must be accountable for our own actions.